{"text":[[{"start":9.25,"text":"Google and Blackstone are creating an AI cloud group backed with $5bn from the alternative asset manager, in a bid to expand the reach of the tech giant’s specialised chips and mount a challenge to Nvidia."}],[{"start":21.85,"text":"The search company and world’s largest private capital group said on Monday that they would bring 500 megawatts of data centre capacity online next year, and scale further over time. "}],[{"start":34.150000000000006,"text":"Google will provide the new venture with hardware including its Tensor Processing Units, the group’s custom chip created to train and deploy AI models. "}],[{"start":43.00000000000001,"text":"“We see a generational opportunity to invest capital at scale building AI infrastructure,” said Jon Gray, president and chief operating officer of Blackstone. “This new company has enormous potential as it helps to meet the unprecedented demand for compute.” "}],[{"start":58.85000000000001,"text":"The project represents the most aggressive move yet by the world’s third-largest cloud provider to expand the reach of its self-developed AI chips and compete directly with leading chipmaker Nvidia."}],[{"start":71.9,"text":"However, Google is also one of the largest buyers of Nvidia’s graphics processing unit chips. "}],[{"start":77.65,"text":"Benjamin Treynor Sloss, a Google veteran who has spent more than two decades at the company, will lead the newly formed venture, of which Blackstone will own the majority."}],[{"start":89,"text":"Some of the data centre facilities Google and Blackstone have identified for the venture were already under construction, said people familiar with the matter. "}],[{"start":97.55,"text":"After adding leverage, the total investment could rise to as much as $25bn, one of the people said."}],[{"start":105.14999999999999,"text":"Blackstone, which has $1.3tn in assets under management, is a major investor in AI and data centres. The alternative asset manager owns QTS, a longstanding co-location provider, and has helped finance deals involving cloud computing provider CoreWeave. It has also invested in AI labs Anthropic and OpenAI."}],[{"start":126,"text":"The partnership echoes deals struck by AI chip giant Nvidia to expand the reach of its technology by backing a number of upstart cloud computing providers, including CoreWeave and Nebius. Nvidia has used investment and compute contracts to support the companies while also supplying them with GPUs. "}],[{"start":145,"text":"Thomas Kurian, Google’s cloud chief, said in a statement on Monday that the venture “helps meet growing demand for TPUs” and added that the platform provided “more options for organisations to access accelerated compute capability”."}],[{"start":159.55,"text":"Kurian previously told the FT that nine of the 10 leading AI labs used TPUs, with Anthropic one of the group’s largest customers. The $900bn AI lab also deploys Amazon’s Trainium chips and Nvidia’s GPUs. Google, Amazon and Nvidia have each invested billions of dollars in the start-up. "}],[{"start":179.60000000000002,"text":"Google last month agreed to invest up to $40bn in Anthropic as part of a $200bn deal in which it will purchase about 5 gigawatts of capacity over the next five years. The company has also agreed to backstop numerous multibillion-dollar data centre deals involving the start-up and cloud group Fluidstack. "}],[{"start":199.65000000000003,"text":"Google has also used TPUs to help train its own Gemini models, which have benchmarked competitively against leading labs including Anthropic and OpenAI’s models."}],[{"start":215.70000000000002,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1779157912_7695.mp3"}